Sarah Atwater Denman Elem, Quincy IL

Original Research by School Decision on Sarah Atwater Denman Elem

Sarah Atwater Denman Elementary is a kindergarten-through-fifth-grade school in Quincy serving a student body of about five hundred. The school is located on Harrison Street in the northern part of the city.

The school's academic performance on state assessments shows proficiency in both English language arts and math across tested grades, though the results are below the midpoint compared to other districts in Adams County. In grade three, roughly half the students tested at proficient or above in ELA and math. Performance declines in the upper grades: by grade four, roughly two-fifths reached proficiency in ELA while fewer than two-fifths did so in math. Grade five shows steeper drops, with math proficiency falling below three-tenths and ELA proficiency to around two-fifths. Science proficiency in grade five sits just under two-fifths. These downward trends across grades three through five may warrant a conversation with the school about support strategies and what drives the decline at the upper elementary level.

The school enrolls roughly equal cohorts in each grade, with slightly larger fifth and fourth-grade classes. The student body is predominantly white, with smaller shares of students identifying as multiracial, Black, Hispanic, and Asian. Data on free-or-reduced-price lunch eligibility and special education and English learner enrollment were not available.

District-level context is relevant here. For the 2024-25 school year, Quincy Public Schools adopted new K-5 literacy and math curricula across all its elementary schools. The district replaced its prior balanced-literacy approach with Benchmark Workshop for reading and switched from Everyday Math to Reveal Math. These are substantive instructional changes that affect how every child in the school is taught to read and do mathematics. This shift was implemented in the current school year and represents a pedagogical reset that parents may want to discuss with school leadership to understand how it is being rolled out and what support or transition work has accompanied it.

The broader Quincy context shows a city in growth mode. Housing values have been rising and a new housing study signals the city is working to add rental and ownership supply. Downtown has seen retail and mixed-use development, and the school district's property tax rate, though tied to a 2010 building referendum cap, has trended below that ceiling in recent years, which can matter to families considering relocation. The city anchors itself around a historic downtown and riverfront parks and sits at a regional transportation hub with Amtrak service.

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Academic performance

How students perform on state tests, by grade, set against the district.

Math

Grade 347%

School 47% · District 44% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 440%

School 40% · District 36% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 3 pts above state median

Grade 527%

School 27% · District 28%

▼ 3 pts below state median

English language arts

Grade 346%

School 46% · District 42% · ▲ 4 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

Grade 449%

School 49% · District 47% · ▲ 2 pts above district

▲ 1 pts above state median

Grade 540%

School 40% · District 44% · ▼ 4 pts below district

▼ 12 pts below state median

Science

Grade 539%

School 39% · District 36% · ▲ 3 pts above district

▲ 2 pts above state median

This schoolQuincy SD 172, same grade

Graduation rate (ACGR) reflects the federally published Adjusted Cohort Graduation Rate for the most recent year available. We refresh this data annually at the close of each academic year in June. The federal source publishes a banded rate (for example, "90-94%") instead of an exact number for cohorts small enough to risk identifying individual students. The state distribution chart, where shown, plots every school in the state with a published rate or band; schools whose rate is federally suppressed are excluded. Where the federal source publishes a band rather than an exact rate, the school is placed within its band using a stable, ID-derived offset, so its position is consistent across visits.